20. ciu. Dei 18.51; Bettenson, City of God, 835.
188 Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life nal Augustinian move. Abel connects the caelum caeli with the ciuitas Dei: the figure who serves as a bridge between the unfallen angelic church in heaven and the body of sinful believers making their way on earth. A new understanding of church enters history with Abel. The church is now those called out of the world, the ecclesia, to labor for and towards the kingdom of God. As a typological figure of the maltreated Christ, Abel also introduces us to the impending persecutions Christ's church would inevitably face. It highlights the fact that the historical church will not be able to avoid conflict during its earthly pilgrimage.
The church in time most fittingly finds its roots in the first Old Testament character who is portrayed as both a righteous man, as well as the first to be martyred for his love of God made manifest by his act of true sacrifice (for without true love in his heart, as Augustine properly sees, his sacrifice would not have been acceptable).19 Abel best represents the persecution the post-Pentecostal body will suffer in full. He is called and chosen, while Cain is found unworthy. Abel's murder anticipates the martyrdom of Christ and his saints, thus becoming the prototype of Christ the good shepherd whose murder at the hands of sinners cries out to God (cf. Gen. 4:10). From this dual anticipation of Christ, his sanctity and his martyrdom, the ecclesia ab Abel hence proceeds on its pilgrim way in this fallen world. Its troubled course began not merely in the time of the bodily presence of Christ and the time of his apostles; it started with Abel himself, the first righteous man slain by an ungodly brother. The pilgrimage goes on from that time right up to the end of history.20
The ecclesia ab Abel highlights how the church can no longer be understood simply as the pristine angelic choir, nor is
19. Cf. ep. Jo. 5.8; en. Ps. 48, exp. 2.11; ciu. Dei 15.1. 20. ciu. Dei 18.51; Bettenson, City of God, 835.